Six Word Memoirs
by wingz of an angel
Summary: Derek and Casey are supposed to write Six Word Memoirs. It's harder than it sounds, cause Derek's a slacker and Casey is way too intense. But it does result in Dasey, of course!
1. Chapter 1

"Remember class, your six word memoirs are due next class. I hope to be impressed," she looked at Derek scrambling to pack his things and get out of the stiflingly boring class and said, loudly, "Or else."

Whatever, he thought as he made his way out the door and over to his locker where Sam and Ralph were waiting for him. He hadn't started working on the assignment, but its only six words; how hard can it be? Derek dropped his bag nonchalantly into his locker, grabbed his hockey gear, and slammed his locker shut without giving the project a second thought.

* * *

><p>Casey, on the other hand, in her typical keener fashion, had started on the assignment the second it was given and had come up with a few six word memoirs that she felt were particularly profound and meaningful. She saw Emily across the hallway talking to Noel, so she went over, apologized quickly to Noel for stealing her best friend away, and dragged Emily to the benches outside.<p>

Emily, who long ago stopped being bewildered by her friend's odd antics, simply followed compliantly and, once they were seated, waited patiently for Casey to tell her exactly what was so important. She didn't have to wait long.

"Ok Em. So I have three memoirs that I want to read to you and then I want you to tell me which one you like best," Casey said anxiously.

Emily looked at her friend like she'd lost her mind, but when Casey didn't register the semi-annoyed look on her friend's face, Emily simply sighed and answered resignedly, "Ok, fine."

Casey took a pristine sheet of lined paper out of a folder, looked down at her list, and cleared her throat. "Number 1: Life is hard but always improves. Number 2: Dancing means happiness because I'm good. And number 3: Canada beats out America any day." She looked at Emily expectantly but before she could say which she preferred Casey blurted out "I'm leaning toward the second one, but I want to know what you think."

Emily rolled her eyes. "I don't really like any of them. Mrs. Harris said the six word memoirs were supposed to be about our lives and things that are important to us. They are supposed to tell our life story, and none of those do. I mean Canada's better than America? Really, Casey?"

Casey huffed, but answered Emily's concerns so quickly that it was clear she'd thought about this beforehand. "Em, that's why I like the second one! I dance, it makes me happy, and I'm good at it."

"Whatever, Casey. It's your choice, but I think you should start over and write about something important to you like your Mom or Lizzie. Or even your life now that you've moved here and live with Derek, George, Edwin and Marty. Of everyone in our class, I would think you'd be the last person without something to write about."

"Fine, Em, I'll think about it at least. But if I work on this tonight, when it's due tomorrow, I'll be no better than Derek! We've had this assignment for two weeks and he probably hasn't even thought about it once!"

Just like Casey, Emily thought, to take a completely unrelated conversation and bring Derek into it somehow. If those two don't start dating soon, I'm going to lock them in a broom closet until they get their act together.

"Speaking of Derek," Emily said, attempting to change the subject, "he should be done with hockey by now; let's get our stuff so we can go home when he gets out of the locker room."

* * *

><p>Derek <em>was<em> finished by the time the two girls were done getting their stuff and was leaning, impatiently, against The Prince, waiting for them so they could all get home.

When Casey and Emily finally exited the school and made their way to Derek, the first thing Casey said was, "Derek, you need to start, and finish, your six word memoir. If you don't hand it in tomorrow, or if Mrs. Harris doesn't like it, then you'll get a bad grade. Again."

Like this is something new, thought Derek, annoyed. Hockey had been particularly challenging that day and he was in no mood to be lectured by keener Queen Casey; so he ignored her, said a brief "Hello" to Emily and drove home.

* * *

><p>Later that night Derek was in his room wearing a hole in the carpet, attempting to create a six word memoir that would be good up for the stuck-up English teacher. Actually, now that he thought about it, she reminded him of Casey. But thinking of Casey made him remember the memoir assignment and the cycle started all over again, so he tried to avoid that topic altogether.<p>

It was difficult though, for Derek to write a memoir about his life, but not think about Casey, who had come in unexpectedly and changed everything so dramatically. He'd already called Sam, who wouldn't help him; Ralph, whose memoir consisted of "wow, nice shoes" and "D-Rock rocks;" and even Emily, who wouldn't tell her his in case he stole it. Finally he resorted to thievery and paid Edwin 10 bucks to steal Casey's list of memoirs from her bag so that he could use one of them as his own.

Derek looked over Casey's list and chuckled to himself. These were so like her, and she'd be furious when she found out that he'd used one of her memoirs; Derek couldn't wait.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning both Derek and Casey woke up feeling satisfied with their six word memoirs; Derek even more than Casey because he didn't have to do any work for his assignment. He had, so it wasn't so obvious that he'd taken her ideas, but his own spin on the memoir, but he'd changed like one word so that hadn't taken much effort at all.

Actually, Derek thought, it was more work to pay Ed to steal the memoirs in the first place.

* * *

><p>Later that day, when Mrs. Harris called on Derek to read his memoir to the class, he was ready. Derek stood up, dramatically cleared his throat, and read proudly, "Hockey means happiness because I'm good."<p>

Casey gaped at him. How could he do that? she thought. He stole my memoir from me!

Derek saw the look of shock on his step-sister's face and smirked. He figured she was probably fuming at him for stealing her idea, but he didn't know the half of it. She was so angry at Derek that she couldn't even formulate words. It wasn't until after Mrs. Harris congratulated Derek on a "job well done, self-centered though it was," that Casey fully realized what Derek had done.

She shot out of her seat and said indignantly, "Don't congratulate him! He doesn't deserve it!"

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think Casey?" Mrs. Harris asked. The teacher had heard all about these two and was prepared to let the whole thing slide when Casey grabbed her paper and thrust it into the teacher's face.

"No, look! He stole my memoir! I had three written down last night but when I packed my things for school this morning, I couldn't find them so I rewrote the one I picked. See? 'Dancing means happiness because I'm good.'! That's almost exactly like the one Derek said!"

Derek turned in his chair to face Casey and smirked at her again. "You need to relax Case," he said casually. "And I'm actually a little hurt that you think I'm not smart enough to come up with my own memoirs. Although, the fact that you liked mine so much that you wrote it down and tried to claim it as your own is very flattering."

He grinned at her annoyingly, and Casey snapped. She lunged at him, hands outstretched to claw his pretty little face off, but she wasn't fast enough, and Mrs. Harris, fed up with the both of them, sentenced Casey _and_ Derek to detention with her after school.

She told them testily, "I have plans for tonight, but I will keep you two in here until you can come up with two," she looked at Derek, "individual, six word memoirs." Casey and Derek opened their mouths to protest, but both quickly shut them when they saw the look Mrs. Harris was giving them.

"Now I'm sick of having you two disturb my class. There's fifteen minutes left; I want you both to go sit in the principal's office until class finishes. You can even start working on your memoirs. Now go!"

This time, not even Casey bothered to argue. She resignedly grabbed her stuff and made her way out of the classroom, head held high. Derek followed her out of the room, flashing a quick smirk to Emily, who, after witnessing the whole exchange, shook her head knowingly at Derek and rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p>School was finally over for the day, and Casey was so ready to go home. Today had been an awful day. And then she remembered: Detention. Mrs. Harris wasn't bad as teachers went, but Casey was so not in the mood to deal with Derek and his annoying antics.<p>

Derek was equally unexcited about detention. He'd had to tell Coach that he wouldn't be at practice that afternoon, and, though he'd blamed Casey for this unfortunate event, it did nothing to appease Coach's anger that his star player would be missing practice two days before the first game of the season.

They both slowly made their way to the English classroom, stopping along the way to greet various friends and complain, to everyone, about their unfair detention time. Even those who weren't in the class had heard about the latest Casey and Derek episode and most of them thought that some time together to work out their issues would be good for the pair. If either Derek or Casey had heard this from anyone, that person probably would have regretted it later, but they were both blissfully oblivious, too wrapped up in their own angers over the detention to care what other people thought.

When they finally made it to the classroom, Derek pushed Casey out of the way to get through the door first. She just glared at him and Mrs. Harris, catching all of this interaction, simply sighed. This was going to be a long detention.

* * *

><p>"I've got it!" Casey said exultantly. She and Derek had been in detention for little more than twenty minutes, and Mrs. Harris was already at her wits end with the two of them. But she had threatened them with a long detention if they didn't behave and she intended to hold true to that, no matter how much she wanted to throttle them, or, like Emily, lock them in a closet.<p>

"Okay, let me see that Casey. What about you Derek, have you got anything yet?" the teacher asked.

"Yeah, I thought about what you said and you were right. So, I decided to write something about my life." Derek replied.

"Suck up!" Casey said, under her breath. Derek smirked at her.

"Let's see then," Mrs. Harris said. She took both Derek's and Casey's memoirs and read them out to both of her students, "Derek's: 'Dad got remarried; now life sucks.' Casey's: 'Life was perfect; then Mom remarried.'" After hearing each other's memoirs, Casey and Derek glared at each other and started bickering again.

Mrs. Harris almost cried; this was going to take a lot longer than she thought.


End file.
